BROMELIADS FOR MARCH ....2014

Good morning Trish and anyone else looking in. I thought for a minute I'd have nothing to read this morning but It's good to see that you Trish have come to the rescue.

I had an upsetting phone call last night from the wife of one of my very good brom friends. We both joined the brom society on the same day some years back and we usually sat together at the meetings and visited each other occasionally. During the past few weeks he'd been pretty sick with heart related problems and on Sat night he was admitted to hospital due to breathing difficulties and yesterday afternoon sadly he passed away. It wasn't entirely unexpected as the doctors had told him there was nothing more they could do for him, however it still comes as a big shock as I'd only visited him the week before.

As far as I'm concerned, I haven't done any more since the previous post and today is my routine appointment at the Doc's at 8.50am; after that I'll probably find myself doing more garden maintenance. I know it's boring work but it's rewarding when you see what you have achieved at the end of each day.

Trish – It's good to see things are returning to normal for you and Joe with your morning weekend walks with the girls and sitting back with your cappuccinos and your daily newspapers and then being able to spend some time in the garden. Unfortunately the house chores, shopping, and fueling of cars has to be done and chops into your free time, but we all have things we must do so we just “bite the bullet” and do them.

You'll probably find a good compost bin is the handiest thing you can make and as well as getting rid of a lot of stuff that would otherwise have to be dumped, you're making a useful fertiliser. The next thing is to make a large veggie plot where you can use all of the compost you make by growing your own veggies. Once you've eaten veggies you've grown yourself you'll find it hard to eat the ones from the shop again as the flavour of the home grown ones is just so much better.

I'll bet you can't wait until you get your igloo constructed; you won't know yourself and it's so much better knowing you have palace where your good plants will be protected from grass hoppers, falling branches, hail and other problems.

Grass Hoppers seem to be an ever increasing problem everywhere this year (except my place that is) and I think I may have found the answer. It's an insecticide called “Clensel” and is made from mostly natural ingredients and although I've never sprayed my plants with insecticides as I don't want to kill the spiders which eat the insects naturally. I find that by spraying some of this just around the base of the plant and under the lip of the pot occasionally it seems to act as a deterrent. I'm not saying it will kill them but since I've been using it for the last five or so years I haven't seen a single Grass Hopper. I originally bought mine at the Bromeliad Society and then it seemed to go off the market and we couldn't get it any more. Recently however I see it advertised once again so it's probably worth a try if you have problems with grass hoppers. The contact details for the company are below:

New Approach International Pty Ltd
Unit 2 153 Wedgewood Rd, Hallam
Victoria 3803 Australia

P: +61 3 9703 2727
F: +61 3 9703 2451
www.newapproach.com.au

In relation to your answer about the Heliconias you mention about how well the gingers are going you sent me. I have to admit that only of the two types grew and I lost the other but I don't remember which was which so I guess I'll have to wait for a flower and get you to ID it for me.

The brom in Pic.2 is one I had given to me by a friend who lives at Broulee which is just south of Bateman's Bay on the N.S.W. south coast. It came to me as a NOID and all I know is my friend said, you won't be disappointed, it's “Magic”; and he was right, it's nice colourful brom. Just for my own purposes and to keep track of it easier, I've given it the unregistered “pet name”of 'Broulee Magic' to make it easier for myself and anyone wanting a pup from it.

Sorry, but I have to get going and don't have time to post pic's this morning....... maybe this afternoon.

All the best, Nev.

hi! actually that plant i posted was in fact Big Mac i forgot and though Macho for some reason. woops!

Hi Guys,
Could anybody help me get the correct name for this Brom for my good friend, Susan?

It is a totally green plant with spikes along the edge of the long leaves.
I am hoping the flower may help you.

The flower's are just beautiful!

With thanks,

Debi
(Degarotty)

Hi again everyone

Breeindy - No problem, it doesn't matter what the name is it's still a beautiful plant.

Debi - I would say your friend's plant is Billbergia pyramidalis. It's one of the original species which has been grown in Australia for many years. It can be sometimes seen in massive clumps in old gardens of abandoned farms and homes. It makes a spectacular show but unfortunately the flowers are short lived like all Billbergias and it can also be a bit cold sensitive if in an unprotected area.

I hope that's not the last we hear from you or your friend, why don't you drop in and say g'day from time to time and maybe post a few more pic's.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone.
sorry I haven't been posting. the free wifi here is a bit hit and miss. I've had trouble getting on and when I do get on it drops out and won't open again. so I'll keep my post short just in case and if I have to post again I will. what's going on that everyone is mentioning pics but they are not coming up or is it this internet connection playing silly buggers.

We are so glad we brought the car down with us. one thing we asked for here when we booked was a nce shady tree to keep the temp down in the van. The site they gave us is probably the hottest one in the park with no shade. So I was sitting here sweating yesterday when I realised the fridge was no longer working. I checked and the floor wasn't level. we should have known or at least checked. anyway I thought bugger it we made one request and we didn't get it so why not complain. So off I went and told them how disappointed we were. We couldn't get a site with a tree for a full week so we asked for a slab and ensuite instead. It is still hot here middle of the day but at least we are a bit more comfortable. We've been going for a drive or to a café at lunch to be in the air con.

Today we had a visit from Shane Weston and his dog Yoly. Johnny had a ball playing in the surf with Yoly and having lots of cuddles. we had a lovely day walking, talking, playing and eating. and Shane brought us 3 pups of lovely vriseas to swap for a pot of our billbergia fruit salad. he was happy with the pot of 4 and a bit tubes.

Just in case I'm closing now. if I don't appear for a few nights remember our internet troubles here. I'll be back but maybe not every night.
Wendy

Hi Everyone!

Got some exciting new broms in the mail today that I will have to pot up this week and take pics of them to post on here in due course; a mixture of vrieseas and neo’s, one I already had but we decided to get another one of it because we like it that much.

Hi Nev sorry to hear about the passing of your good friend taken suddenly like that, even when prepared it stills comes as a great shock to everyone that loved and cared about them and always leaves such a big empty space in our hearts.

I was disappointed I could not attach pics last night so attached them first thing this time before starting on my thread and they attached straight away which was good.

Nev yes I am really looking forward to having the big compost bin finished and ready to be used as we always have a lot of leaf litter, veggie scraps and recycled paper to put in our tumble bins but they get harder to tumble as they fill and there is never enough room for all the leaves we have falling from all the trees. I am also looking at getting a worm farm so I can make my own worm juice from it but will concentrate on getting the building of the compost bins done first. I agree you can’t beat the taste of home grown veggies and herbs and it would be something I would like to have in our garden once again.

Nev yes I absolutely cannot wait for our igloo to be built and ready as some of my vrieseas are crying out for a better place to call home as the grasshoppers are making a mess of them in the garden as well as the neo’s and the one’s we have in our entertainment area some are showing signs of not being totally happy so the sooner the igloo gets built the better. Nev thanks ever so much for the name of the insecticide you use that seems to repel grasshoppers from chomping at your broms in the garden, I will have to order some and give it a try and report back how it works for us, like you I do not want to harm any of the spiders, frogs etc that live in my broms as they are a necessity to having happy healthy broms and I would never forgive myself if I did them any harm.

Hi Bree – thanks for clarifying - still a nice Neo. either way whether it be Big Mac or Macho. – luv it all the same.

Hi Debi those are very nice pictures of Billbergia pyramidalis in flower. Like Nev said why not join us on this great friendly forum both you and your friend and post some more great pics of your broms and chat with us some more if you like some more about broms.

Anyway time to head off and watch a show both Joe and I like to watch together before it gets too late.

Hi to anyone looking in or on the sick list.

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 & Pic 2 - Neo. 'Thunderbell' - this one is such an intense red.
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Jinx' - I adore the yellow tones in this one
Pic 4 & 5 - A couple of pics of some pups colouring up some.

Hi Wendy

We posted by the looks of things at the same time, great to hear you are having a great time aside from the fridge / ac not working and sounds like you still get to spend time with broms which is great.

Cheers

Trish

Hi all,
Well the Townsville trip went well, it was a long long day but well worth it, I think. I saw a plant Ae Karla that looks better in the pic than in real life. It is quite rare in Aust, I think this was the second sold here. I would need to win lotto to pay for it. It went for $1875.00 on ebay and a problem arose, then it was negotiated for an undisclosed figure. The next one went for $1125.00 but I haven't seen that one. This is Pic 1.
Pic 2 is Ae spherocephala and was a swap for another plant that I had . I have to chase up a couple more plants because I have different contacts.I guess thi is where I start to wheel and deal and I will be fair.
Pic 3 Is Crypthansus Ruby and already I have locals chasing it.
Pic 4 Neo angustifolia, a new purchase from the week end
Pic 5 is just a little something that I had hanging around, what a surprise I got when I lifted it down to move a leaf.
That is it for tonight
Have a good one
Ian

Hi everyone – It's good to see a few more of the regulars posting once again.

A big “Get Well Soon” to anyone on the sick list, and a special “Hello” to Jean who is still caring for her sick hubby and I hope things are going well for you.

We had a very severe storm here last night and I've never seen rain like it in my life. The gutters on the roof were over flowing and at one stage it was so heavy the water overflowed from the rear of the gutters into the eaves and there was water dripping out of the external light fitting. So it looks like today is assessment time and my first job will be to remove all of the down pipes and see if maybe they are blocked up as I haven't been able to climb the ladder and clean out the gutters for some time now and it's a job I used to do regularly. I'll have to try and work out the cause quickly as they've forecast a lot more heavy rain for the coming days and I don't want a repeat of last night.

I don't know if it's caused any damage among the brom's as it's still dark as I write this, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. But to look at the positive side, they all will have had their “cups” washed out.

Wendy – Sorry to hear about your “hiccup” with the camper-van fridge and not being able to get a site beneath a tree, but then is it wise to camp beneath a tree? We were always told it was a definite No No. and knowing my luck, if it was me beneath the tree, a branch would probably drop on me. Anyway you got the consultation prize of a level slab to compensate somewhat and that should make things a bit more comfortable anyway.

You just can't stay away from brom's can you? Even when you go on a holiday you're still swapping; anyway I pleased to hear that Bill 'Fruit Salad' is starting to be spread around. This is one of the great advantages of swapping I think, because if anything happens to your plant, you know where you may be able to get another pup, so all is not lost.

Trish – It's interesting that you say the grass hoppers are making a mess of your Vrieseas; it seems to me that they seem to take a liking to a particular type of plant and attack that more than any other. A friend of mine who also had Vrieseas was having grass hopper trouble as well, but they weren't attacking his Vrieseas, they were attacking some half grown Ae. blanchetiana seedlings instead. I know they seem to go for the soft leaves so it was probably because the seedling still had soft new growth which attracted them to the Aechmeas instead of the Vrieseas. At that particular time I has a surplus of young blanchetiana seedlings that I was going to dump so I gave them to him to feed the grass hoppers on so they wouldn't attack his other brom's, This made it easier for him to catch them as he knew where they would be when he went out with the hose of a morning, so you see, there's even a use for unwanted culls.

More nice pic's you've posted again and I'm particularly drawn to the one in your third picture as I too am very interested in Neo's with yellowish tones. As for the name, Neo. 'Jinx', I think this could be incorrect as Neo.'Jinx' was an Alan Freeman cross between Neo. 'Fairy Tale' and concentrica made in the mid 90's and doesn't seem to have any yellow colouring in it like yours. I have a friend who has this plant which he got from “Bromagic” a few years back and even grown in good light it's till predominantly mid green with darker maroon markings. How large is your plant? The plant my friend has is reasonably large plant about 18” in diameter and this ties in with the info on the BCR about it.

The colour could be due to high light intensity, as light can do some unusual things, but somehow I don't think this I the case with your plant. Having said all of that, I still find it a very attractive plant both colour and shape wise and would ask if you could please put my name on your list for a spare pup if and when you get one.

Ian – I'm pleased you had such a successful day at Townsville, it made the long trip all worthwhile.

I've looked on the BCR to see what I could read about Aechmea 'Karla' but find it isn't registered; but judging by the prices being asked it is probably just a newly released hybrid. Do you know any more about it?

It is an attractive looking plant if you like that sort of thing but to put everything in perspective I don't thinks it's worth the sort of money they're asking for it. I mean the bloke next door to me bought a reasonable second car for work for $1500 with 12 months rego. which is less than the $1875.00 the brom went for; and you can't drive a brom to work.

Did you get to see Rob Smythe and his collection while you were there? I did drop him a line and tell him you were going to Townsville and that I'd mentioned to you to try and fit in a visit and he said he would be glad to see you.

The Cryptanthus Ruby is a beautiful looking little plant and it's just a pity I've never had any luck growing them, but I don't seem to be alone as these seem to be plants that some growers excel at growing and others have no luck at all, and I'm one of the unlucky ones.

The plant in your last pic has some nice colour; do you have a name? It's something like the result you'd expect if you crossed Neo.'Charm' with Neo.' Gold Fever'.

Well that will do me for today and I'll post some old Bill. pic's just for a change. Pic.1 Bill. 'Medowie Gift' x (Unknown), Pic.2 Bill pyramidalis x 'Windigig Special', Pic's 3, 4 and 5 all from the same cross Bill. 'Fred Red' x 'Hallelujah' with Pic 5 recently registered as Bill.'Stephen Stone'.

All the best, Nev.

lovely pics...

I got the news today that I am being made redundant.

not unexpected but disappointing all the same

take care all
Teresa

Hi all, I am having trouble with the advertisments that I have to bypass to get on to this forum. It often takes 15 minutes just to get through and then the internet drops out. So much for technology and the NBN. I am off that highway and on a back road down amongst the Gum Trees and gravel roads. I had my winge and will get off my soapbox now.
Back to something about broms. The Townsville trip was long 9 hrs travelling total and about 3 hrs for the meeting. I had the opportunity to meet a group of fairly youngish brom enthusiasts 40ish as average age and this made me feel like one of the fossils. But it was enjoyable anyway.
As I walked into Belle's bushhouse which is 18m X 6m with a polycarbonate roof, white in colour and Black 70% shadecloth walls I was surprised as to how much light was actually in there. I also observed just how little she had in the way of hanging plants, there was only a single row with no plans of putting up more rows as they may interfere with the lighting . There was also good spacing between the plants allowing good ventilation. This is an ideal,unfortunately un practical for most of us.
I did not get to meet Rob or Trish as we were at a different location. I went about 30km North and got inspired and would love to be able to spend a week-end seeing as much as possible.
We had some rain this afternoon so I did not get any pics today.
Pic 5 from last night is Neo Hawaiin Sunset.
Teresa I am looking for that redundancy package or something similar so that I can have more time for me to look after myself.
Have a good one.
Ian

Good morning everyone – Well it seems the worst of the rain has gone but the forecast is for more “on and off” showers for the remainder of the week. The weather report said that the recent torrential rain was a one in thirty year event so it seems I must have slept through the last two as I can't ever remember rain like it and thankfully I won't be around to clean up after the next one.

I spent most of the day cleaning up after the rain and fortunately no real damage. I went to the museum for a short time yesterday and on the way passed a group of new homes in a low lying area. These were like most new homes these days and built using the “slab on the ground” construction and not like my old place built on brick piers. Without exception the whole six of them had their carpets ripped out and lying in the drive as the result of flooding, and just like I've always said, “slab on the ground” constructions may be cheaper to build, but are only good if you live on the top of a hill.

Theresa – Sorry to hear you're being made redundant; it's a nasty word we are hearing more and more of in these days of constant change. It seems it's all about cutting the number of the workers, working the remaining ones harder for the same pay and charging more for the same product just to satisfy the shareholders. To sum it all up in one word …......”greed”.

Anyway, it's not the end of the world mate, keep your chin up and keep looking, I'm sure you'll eventually find something else.

Ian – What I do with sites I use on a regular basis is to save them to “My Favourites” or on the other computer I “Bookmark” them. In either case when I want to get on the site I just click on “Dave's Garden” in the "Favourites" or "Bookmark" lists and there it is. Most time it will come straight up but occasionally it will ask me to log in and I then have to select “Communities” and then “Discussion Forums” before selecting “Australian and New Zealand Gardening” and then finally our thread, in this case “BROMELIADS FOR MARCH ....2014” but in most cases I get straight onto the site.

It's good to hear you enjoyed your time at Townsville even if most of the time was taken with traveling. Maybe a better option would be to stay overnight if you go again. It's also good to hear of a Brom. Society with a younger membership even if it did make you feel like a “fossil” and it goes to show that Brom. Growing in Townsville is alive and well with the younger generation as well as us more mature (I won't say “old fart”) growers. That shade house sounds just like what I could use, however the finances wouldn't stretch to the cost. Anyway it's no good wishing to have something you can't get, better to just make the best of what you have.

Too bad you couldn't fit in a visit to Rob or Trish, maybe you can arrange it for some other time as I'm sure you'd enjoy both of them.

As soon as I saw you had named the plant in your Pic.5 yesterday as 'Hawaiian Sunset' I immediately went to look it up on the BCR and the FCBS Photo Index as although I don't have it myself, I have heard a lot of “good things” about it. I was very surprised to see that although it was registered way back in 1979, the only info given about it is “c.v. of unknown parentage”. The FCBS site doesn't have anything at all about it............... very strange indeed.

Ian, you probably shouldn't wish for a redundancy package as there are good ones and bad ones with the good ones being in the minority. It all depends on how badly or how quickly your employer wants to get rid of you as to just how good your particular package would be.

If you or Theresa get one, my advice would be to read the “fine print” very carefully and seek the advice of your union (if you're in one) to make sure you are getting all of your correct entitlements; most employers are genuine but there are still the “crooks”around you have to double check on.

Well that's it from me for today and I'll now have a look to see what pictures I have to share this morning. Firstly my three favourite Ae. recurvatas; Pic.1 Ae recurvata “Little Surprise' (Unreg.), Pic.2 Ae Aechmea 'Blushing Pineapple' (Unreg.) Pic.3 Ae recurvata 'Rising Sun' (Unreg.). Next is not my pic or my plant but it is of Ae. spectabilis which is a species many of which I grew from seed. Finally, Ae. 'Bert' (Dark leaf form), this isn't my plant either but is the Mother plant of my plant which came to me as a pup via a swap with a friend from Far North Queensland.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone. we are really happy with our set up now and no more sand walking in to the annex or the van. will have to remember to stipulate a slab whenever we book. Nev we looked at some of the sites they were offering us to move to and I agree with you about sticks and bird droppings etc falling on the van if parked under a tree. anyway we now have shade for the annex via the van in the morning and the ensuite building in the afternoon. we can even leave the broms we've bought out along the side of the ensuite as it doesn't seem to get any sun between the annex and the building. it does get the rain though so broms are happy and none disappearing so far LOL.
Nev I'm conscious about using up my free wifi here by opening pics but I just had to check our your billbergia pics. those fred red x hallelujah are beautiful and if you have spares could you please put me down for our next swap. I also love that ae bert dark leaf form. those dark tips are stunning aren't they? I actually took a chance and put down some seed from ae bert last year. they are coming on. I'm hoping we might have got some pollen from some of the other aechmeas in that spot so fingers crossed we get some nice seedlings. I'm hoping our son is caring for them while we are gone. he rang last night to say when he came out of the seedling house door (newly installed by Johnny before we left) he was greeted by 4 magpies and 3 kookaburras on the pavers under the patio waiting for their food. we didn't think to leave some mince in the fridge downstairs for Darren to feed the birds. they'll be starving by the time we get home on Sunday.
we're getting some light showers here today so Johnny is catching up on some nap time and I'm reading posts until the wifi runs out. haven't been able to access my emails here though.
I was reading the free paper here this morning and land is really cheap. nice 4br brick home on a slab with 16.25ha open for offers over $400K with grassy paddocks and large dam plus a mango orchard. imagine the shadehouses we could put up on 16h of grassy paddocks? dreaming now.
Wendy
PS Nev condolences on the loss of your mate and Teresa on your redundancy. hope you get a good one to set you up for a while. Ian glad you had a great trip. unfortunately when we were up in NQ 3 years ago it was before we had the fb groups so I didn't have contacts for up there. would love to do that trip now and go see lots of people. mind you we still came back from up there with 70+ broms in the van.

thought this pic of a bike tyre trellis for a vegie garden was a great idea. might inspire those talking about vegie gardens. great idea I thought.
Wendy

sadly the redundancy is limited - I either work out 5 weeks notice or get paid out, our contract was weighted firmly in favour of the employer.

Hi Everyone!

It rained heaps last night which was great as well as most of today up until about 1pm then the sun came out; hopefully we get some more tonight? Everything outside is understandably benefiting from a good fresh drink of water instead of the usual town water they receive so sure to see a growth spurt in everything other than just the grass.

Hi Ian pleased to hear your Townsville trip went well and that you made some great brom contacts along the way, sounds like the long trip was well worth it. What a shame I did not check my D-Mail from you earlier over the weekend so we could have caught up on Sunday, anyway hopefully you have more time up your sleeve next time and we can catch-up and meet which would be great. Rob Smythe is definitely well worth a visit as he has an amazingly beautiful bromeliad collection and Joe and I always thoroughly enjoy catching up with Rob and Gwen when we get the opportunity; we have not done so though in a good six or so months so are well and truly due for a visit. Rob and Gwen are absolutely lovely people and we think the world of them and it is always so enjoyable to kick back and chat with them about life in general and bromeliads of course too. The colours of the collection of bromeliads in their garden always takes my breath away because they are so stunning and I really like how they have them growing on everything like a 3D garden that I find so amazing and something that would have taken years of dedication and hard work to achieve something so beautiful and magical.

Ian I did not get the opportunity to see those expensive broms on EBay but when looking at Pic 1 you kindly posted of one of them, I can’t believe it was priced at that to begin with as it does nothing for me at all, plus imagine how many broms you could buy with that amount of money hey. Always worth watching though just to see what some broms go for out of curiosity.

Ian great brom pics from 24/3, I especially liked your Pic 3 Crypthansus ‘Ruby’ which has great shape and colour.

Hi Nev sounds like you got slammed with a severe storm / rain, pleased to hear though that none of your broms got damaged during the heavy weather.

Nev thanks for your feedback about grasshoppers with the use of brom culls to keep the grasshoppers away from your friends bromeliad collection. I think my only alternative is to try the natural chemical you recommended the other day and we will go from there as most of my bromeliad collection is outdoors exposed to everything that lives out there, so we will have to see how that goes as I am yet to place an order for the product; in the interim I am just on the lookout for them all the time and catch them when I can which is mainly on the weekends giving them the opportunity to chew freely during the week. Lucky for me (touch wood) they are only attacking mother brom for now from the top and not targeting any of the pups attached which is good but I think that’s because I have hardly any space between my broms, just enough to let the air flow freely and no more than that.

Nev pleased to hear you liked the look of the brom I have in my collection called Neo. ‘Jinx’ and thanks very much for the feedback on this brom. I will have to check my records and see who I purchased it from as they may be able to shed some more light on the history of the plant? ‘Jinx’ is about 50cm in diameter. I can see some similarities to that of the pic on the BCR which is the splotch markings although mine are of a deep pink where on the BCR as you say they appear darker maroon; they both also do have the same shape and width of leaf; it will be good to take progress pics of mine and post them here for comparison as it is just coming into flower for the first time this year as is starting to flush some colour on its centre leaves, I currently have it growing in full sun but under 70% shade cloth which has naturally greatly contributed to its green/lime overall colour that really catches my attention whenever I walk past the plant. Nev I am more than happy to put your name down for a pup when I get one spare.

Nev what a great selection of Billgeria’s you posted pics of on 24/03. Nev I have been meaning to ask you if you have any Bills’ you would be willing to sell (I hope I do not offend you asking) as I was looking at buying some on EBay because they are not something we find readily for sale at our local market. The only Bill I have in my collection I think is Bill. ‘Hallelujah’ which I adore and it grows very well here and I would like to collect more of these beautiful plants as I really adore all their different colours and markings and the way the light transforms them into like beautiful lanterns during different times of the day.

Hi Teresa so sorry to hear you have been made redundant, I hope that everything works out for you in the long run; just keep your chin up and I am sure good things will come to you; get some good rest while you can before your next job as this will do you the world of good while you job hunt.

Hi Wendy those bike tyre trellis’s look fantastic, what a great idea for the veggie patch; though now I would need to get rid of some of my broms to have a proper veggie patch at that’s not going to happen anytime soon but a mini veggie patch would be nice.

Attached are pics of my new broms:

Pic 1 & 2 – Vriesea ‘Pink Princess’ – Alan Pythian hybrid (not as yet registered) – how pretty is that soft pink.

Pic 3 & 4 – Vriesea ‘Dads Favorite’ – We adored this one so much we decided to get one more so we could grow one outside and grow one under full protection and see what they colour up like.

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi everyone Well the rain's back again; all night last night and continuing today. It's not heavy rain but steady nevertheless and enough to keep me out of the garden. I spent yesterday afternoon finishing off a bit of potting in the garage as well as putting the finishing touches to another little project I'm trialling. I also made up a stock of wire droppers from which I can suspend my pot hangers, so you can see I haven't been exactly idle even though it is raining.

Wendy – Pleased to hear you got sorted out to your satisfaction in the caravan park at last, and now you can sit back and finally take it easy.

I only have six of the Bill. 'Fred Red' x 'Hallelujah' seedlings and they are all different with each having its own appeal and they were part of a swap for some Neoregelia seedlings I made with a fellow "brom friend". Obviously I have fed them up a bit now to produce some pups a bit quicker, but as it's always been my policy to keep the first as a spare for myself and send the second one to the person who I swapped with, I don't expect to have many spares any time soon as they don't grow as quickly down here as they do in your warmer climate, however I'll still put your name on the back of the tags, but don't stand around on one leg waiting.

I also think the Ae 'Bert' (Dark leaf form) is a beaut, but I can't get the colour as intense as the lady I got it from in Far North Queensland as we just don't have that tropical environment it seems to need to bring out that colour. It is however putting up a couple of pups, but they are ever so slow, and they will slow down even more now with the cooler months approaching.

Your pet Magpies and Kookaburras will be dis-owning you for not arranging for someone to feed them in your absence. I've been feeding wild birds for over 50 years now and the one thing I've learned is you have to be totally committed, and just like any other pets, you must arrange for someone else to feed them when you can't. I know they can still get food in the wild, but they do tend to rely on the extras they are fed especially if they are feeding young. A lot of people say we shouldn't feed wild birds as they become too dependent on it, however I feel that we are obligated to assist them with a bit of supplementary food, as after all it's we humans who are ripping up their natural habitat for the use of housing and robbing them of their natural sources of food by land clearing.

That's a pretty good price for the home you speak of, and an ideal place to perhaps start up a brom nursery, however there's no way in the world I would ever consider a slab on the ground house after the water damage I've seen around here in the last week where the water has just run through them like a river. I'll stick to the old way where my house is built up off the ground on brick piers; it might mean a couple of steps to climb which is a bit taxing on your arthritis as you get older, but certainly better then being flooded out.

You mention Face Book groups which jogged my memory of a thread that Jack Koning has started to do with naming of “grexes”. I remember the same discussion back in 2009 on the old Bromeliad Garden Web Forums and it seemed to go on for weeks. In the end there was still no definite conclusion as the participants were pretty evenly divided between those for, those against and those undecided, but it was an excellent discussion and some very good points were put forward and it will be interesting to see how this one on Face Book turns out.

That's a great idea with the bike wheel trellis; I must try it out as it would look great with Sweet Peas growing all around it or even climbing Geraniums. Some years ago I used an old bike wheel which I suspended horizontally by a bit of chain from an overhead beam. From this I hung about fifteen 4” pots of miniature Neo's at various heights (a bit like a mobile). It too looked good, but you had to be careful you balanced them just right otherwise the whole lot tipped over.

Theresa – Unfortunately it seems always the case that almost all of these redundancy packages are weighted firmly in favour of the employer and it's just the same here in Australia. I doesn't matter how loyal you have been or how long you have worked for them, when "push comes to shove" you are just another number for the “Bean Counters” to juggle around.

Good luck anyway, and hopefully you'll come up with something in the near future. You can always start your brom collection sooner that you had planned.

Trish – Like you say, everything grows with a vengeance after a good shower of rain, unfortunately that's the last thing I need, I just want my plants to “slow down” so I have better chance of catching up. It's just so dis-heartening to see the seedlings so overgrown in their pots and in need of urgent re-potting and not having anywhere to put them. I guess that's the price I'm paying now for not being a “ruthless culler”, however it's easy to be wise after the event and still doesn't help solve my problem.

Like you say it's bad luck Ian didn't have time to visit you and/or Rob as I'm sure he would have been impressed with both of your collections, and Rob as well as being a well know hybridiser is also a fountain of knowledge which he is always keen to share with interested parties....However, there's always next time.

Yes Trish “slammed “ is probably a very good word to describe the rain we had. I've been in this area for 73 years and I've never seen anything like it before. Fortunately our local council has a very good programme of drain maintenance and there was very little local flooding due to blocked up drains, unlike a lot of other areas where the councils do nothing with their drains until after a flood occurs....Does “Closing the gate after the horse has bolted” sound familiar?

Firstly, let me say thanks for putting my name down for a pup from Neo 'Jinx' when you get a spare. Secondly, let me say it seems I'm guilty of not doing what I tell others to do when assessing and comparing plants, and that is to look at the “whole” plant which is obvious when I read what you say about seeing similarities.

I had noticed the similarities of the leaf width and shape but what I didn't notice until just now is that your plant doesn't appear to be fully mature whereas the one on the BCR is in full flower. So if yours has a bit of colouring up to do yet and it was grown in more light than the one on the BCR, this could explain why they look so different, and indeed they may both be the same plant after all. I suppose it's good that we can all make mistakes as it would be a pretty boring old world if we were all always right and never wrong.

As for selling Bill's, yes I do have a lot of brom's for sale including Bill's, but as usual I've been “slack” and still don't have a Bill. list completed. People come here and buy a few plants from time to time but I feel pretty guilty each time I sell some Bill's as I've been promising my forum friends for some time I would make up a list and send it to them and as yet it just hasn't happened. I'll try and get onto it and send you a copy as soon as I get it.

I love the Vriesea pic's; two very beautiful plants and I can understand why you had to have them.

Time to go again and the first three of today's pic's show just what happens when you don't cull your seedlings when you should. To give some idea of size, the polystyrene boxes they are standing in are 3” high. Pic. 4 might be of interest to Joe and Trish as it's a little Miltonia orchid I bred years ago when I was into orchids (Milt.'Kismet' x Milt. 'Purple Queen') and just to show I don't kill or lose everything Trish sends me Pic. 5 is one of the Gingers she sent but I don't know which one but I'll post a pic when it flowers.

All the best, Nev.

Nev - love the orchid... such pretty colours.

I was feeling a bit down about the redundancy but have applied for some jobs & the odd thing about my job is that they plan to offer me a part time position.
So it;s not like I am being pushed out into the cold, the shop isn't doing well enough to justify the wages bill. Most of that is us having to pay the commercial manager's salary.
Don't see him taking a cut to help out but never mind.
My first sale today was $300.00 worth - more of the cool temperatures might see things pick up so they need me for more hours.

Spotted some broms at Bunnings, cheaper than the nursery but pretty much the same thing - generic labels on mass produced plants sold as an alternative to cut flowers.

At least you expect that of Bunnings.
I was disappointed that a nursery should be doing the same thing.

I'll just keep an eye on the Warehouse for when they do their ones again.
won't be any different to the others except for the price.
I won't feel bad about buying them cheap & at least then I will have something to share with the group :)

cheers all
Teresa

Hi Everyone!

It rained all day at work which was lovely except it’s delaying some concrete works that should have started already, anyway not much we can do about that and besides I think it is great that a lot of areas are getting so much rain, especially those drought stricken farmers that have been really suffering from what appeared to be an endless drought; hopefully this rain is going them some good, just wish there was much more coming their way but it looks like it will be over soon.

Hi Nev looks like just you and me today! Great to hear you got heaps accomplished even with the rain; like you I always find plenty to do when it’s raining and normally bring in trolleys full of broms that need pups cut off etc. or pot up cuttings that I have taken around the garden to give as presents or sell at the next market I have.

Nev in relation to your seedlings that need urgent re-potting, what about getting together a good group of “Working B” friends to pop over and help you re-pot them all and entice them by throwing a bit of a BBQ and throw in some beer, wine etc. so it becomes an enjoyable day for everyone. It is times like this I wish we lived closer as I know I would really enjoy kicking back re-potting seedlings and having a good chin wag with you about broms and life in general.

Nev our local council like yours is proactive in making sure drains are maintained etc. especially given all the low lying areas around that get subjected to either storm surges or king tides etc.

Nev please do not feel like you have made a mistake on the feedback you gave me about Neo. ‘Jinx’, whose to know what it will grow up to be like and at least when it has I can check for sure and post pics on here so we can compare it to that of the one on the BCR. Nev I think it is great when you question the name of a brom given all the years of experience you have both hybridising and growing broms for all these years; and I think it is great because it makes us take note and really study our broms more carefully to hopefully ensure proper identification of our broms - So Watch This Space!

Nev thanks that would be great when you are ready if you could please provide me with a list of broms/bills you have for sale. On another note that Miltonia Orchid you kindly posted a pic of we both though it to be very beautiful and what lovely colors it has. Joe is really pleased at the moment because he has a lot of orchids coming into flower at present in our nursery brought on with the change in temperatures; we will have to post pics of some of the ones that have flowered over the weekend if I remember as I always get a bit brom side-tracked then he he. Pleased also to see the pic of how well your Ginger plant is doing, I am thinking it may be he Pink Ginger plant that survived so will have to get some Dwarf Red Ginger seedling growing for you so I can post some to you in say about 3 or 4 months.

Attached are pics of my new broms:

Pic 1 & 2 - Neo. ‘Sonic Boom’ Albo
Pic 3 & 4 – Neo. ‘Sonic Boom’ Lineated

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi to the two “T's” - Theresa and Trish, It's a good job you're both posting or there wouldn't be anything to read at all.

Had a bit of a sad day yesterday as I went to say goodbye to my old mate at his funeral which was originally intended to just be a small private family affair with his three closest friend invited. However it ended up being a normal open funeral which was just as well as the chapel was full to overflowing and people were standing outside and it was an indication of just how well he was liked by all who knew him. There was also a good roll up from the members of the Brom Society which his wife said she greatly appreciated.

When I got home from the funeral I saw that my son-in-law had dropped off a white plastic Venetian blind which had come into the recycle centre but which they don't sell. He had thought of me and the brom name tags I make out of the aluminium Venetian blind slats and thought these would be even better being plastic. I don't have the heart to tell him that the reason I use the aluminium slats is that the Bower Birds “steal” the normal plastic name tags and that's why I started making them in the first place as they are “Bower Bird Proof”. It's a shame really as the slats on this blind are exactly the right width which I usually have to cut with scissors, they are white and are easy to write on with the same type of fine OHP marker I use for the other ones I make but I still don't think they will be "Bower Bird Proof"..

Theresa – Well it seems like you have some good news as well as the bad news. Obviously the bad news is that you're being made redundant but the good news is that you still have some part time work at least.

It's not just the savings in wages the management makes but also when you are employed as part time instead of full time it cost them less to employ you because your other entitlements usually change as well. It's quite complicated here in Australia, and New Zealand may be different, but just double check to see what your entitlements are exactly.

I had it all explained to me once and forget the finer points, but as I understood it the hourly rate was a little higher, but your annual leave entitlements were different and I don't think there was any long service leave entitlements involved at all as the argument was that as a part time worker you wouldn't accrue any long service (even though I know of part time workers who have been employed in this capacity for many years).

Obviously it's all meant to save money for the “higher ups” in the business so double check and make sure you are getting paid what you're entitled to. I'm sure there's some Govt. department there that can tell you what your entitlements are under the current award and it's best to check this out and see where you stand. It's quite confusing now as there are “full time workers”, “part time workers”, “casual workers”, “casual part time workers”, “weekly staff”, “fortnightly staff”, “monthly staff”, professional salaried staff” and even more that I no longer remember and all on different rates of pay and conditions.

When discussing the availability of brom's in your area you said,”I was disappointed that a nursery should be doing the same thing”. The thing is that if it's just a general nursery as such, they wont be growing their own brom's; they will be buying them in just the same as Bunnings, K-Mart, Mitre-10 and the other large stores; in other words they are just “on sellers” and they all seem to use the same method with the generic naming of plants. The thing is that most of these plants are now well known so it shouldn't be too hard to get a positive ID either here or on some other forum.

The thing to remember is that there are still bargains to be had sometimes if you look at the plant closely. I remember buying an Alcantarea Imperialis Rubra from Bunnings once for $20 ($19.95); they had just been unloaded and I got first pick and got what I thought was a very nice big plant for the money. When I told an “out of town friend” he asked me to get one for him also and when I went back there were only two smallish ones left for the same price, but when I looked more closely I saw that one of these had four pups emerging so I got that one. My friend was more than satisfied as the pups grew very quickly and I think he got even more pups from that plant which was probably some by-product of the gassing treatment they had all been given to make them grow and flower quicker.

Trish – Like you I'm pleased to see that the current rain is being wide spread to some of the inland areas as well and not just confined to the coast as it usually is. I'm sure the farmers will be very grateful for it, but unfortunately they need much more and according the the weather report it will be finished in a few days time.

Thanks for your suggestion about my seedling re-potting dilemma, but it's not the re-potting that's the problem. I love the re-potting and apart from watering, it's my favourite part of brom growing and I could gladly sit and re-pot all day and think I'm “in heaven”. The problem comes when they've all been re-potted and there's nowhere for them to go; I need an area twice the size of what I have and heaps more under shade cloth to accommodate all of these babies.

Because they are overcrowded now, they are growing very lanky as they compete for more light and this completely buggers up their shape. What I think I'll have to do is look closely at each plant and very selectively pick out a few that I think could turn out OK and keep them and dump the rest. I've always said that culling is a very painful process and I kidded myself that I could get rid of enough to friends so I wouldn't have to do this, but unfortunately they've just grown too fast for me to keep up with and that plus the fact that my friends have mostly run out of space as well doesn't solve my problem.

If I didn't have grandsons who love running around on the grass and if I hadn't planned to get another dog in the near future, I could rip up all the grass and grow brom's in its place,but that's not going to happen, so culling it will have to be!

I wasn't cranky with myself so much about the feedback I gave about Neo.'Jinx', it was mainly that I went off “half cocked” and fell into the trap of opening my big mouth before I had checked it out thoroughly and looked at everything and not just the obvious; advice I'm always giving others and failed to follow myself.

Regarding the Ginger plant - You sent me a Dwarf Ginger and a Pink Ginger; the cold winter knocked over one of them and the one in the pic is what's left and is about 2'6” high which is good as I had my doubts that either would have grown.

You'll be very pleased with your Neo.'Sonic Boom' plants when they mature as they are from that “master hybridiser” of variegated plants, Chester Skotak.

The parentage is a bit complicated being [(carolinae variegated x cruenta) x Bobbie Hull] x Neo. 'Spines'. However the B.C.R. tells us the name of 'Spines' was registered by Dennis Cathcart in August 2008 resulting from a selection of seed raised from one of the many 'carcharodons’. In August 2011 Eloise Beach, of Florida, advised that the original plant had been given the name of ‘Spines’ by Chester Skotak, for a plant he got from Pedro Nahoum in Niteroi, Brazil in the 1990’s but was never officially recorded. What ever the history is, I'm sure they'll both mature into beautiful plants you'll be very proud of.

Finally, a big “Hi” to any of our friends reading but (unfortunately) not posting and a big “Get Well Soon” to anyone on the sick list.

Here's a few pic's to hopefully cheer you up a bit as I finish off today. Pic.1 is the Ae. Shelldancer I found a week or so back and posted previously when it was just emerging, Pic.2 is my Alcantarea 'Silver Plum' grown from a very small grass pup I was given a while back and as I'm not an “Alc” grower, I'm pretty “Chuffed” at this result. Pic.3 is (as I call it) “A thorn between two roses) and is an albino pup on one of my Aussie Dream plants, which once again just goes to show the instability of some from this grex. Pic.4 is another of my early seedlings from the crossing of Neo. concentrica x ('Charm' x 'Cracker Jack') and Pic.5 is still one of my all time favourites, the beautifully shaped Neo. 'Royal Cordovan'.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone. It's funny I thought I posted last night but nothing there. I did read it all. wonder what happened to it?

well the fishing was great today after all the rain. maybe the fresh water washed the big bream out of the river and down to the mouth where we were fishing. 15 huge bream filleted, boned and now sealed in croyovac bags in the freezer. we even gave 2 to the old couple opposite us here in the park. he was talking to Johnny while he was cleaning them.

Nev it's a shame if you have to destroy most of those seedlings. some of the ones you sent to me are starting to look lovely. I can always take them up to Hervey Bay to my son who is on 1.5 acres. we've been buying up plants to take up to him in a couple weeks. got some from Sue and Ross, but also got a couple of good ones from Ross for us.

I'm taking the risk and posting a pic for Trish of a costas rubra we had flowering not long ago. I love it.

wendy

Hi all, I’m back ….

back from a wonderful cruise to New Zealand on the Sea Princess. We had the best time and perfect weather the entire cruise. We had been told it would be very cold in NZ and we took lots of woollies we didn’t need as it was just beautiful … warm and sunny the whole week we were there. An amazing place, lots of photos to share (when I get around to down loading them).

I haven’t read any of the recent posts, there are so many of them to catch up with. I hope everyone is well and not affected by the recent heavy rains and flooding.

I have only managed a quick look at my broms in between showers … I noticed lots of pups ready to remove and pot up and the seedlings have grown so much in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, it’s great to be home again, to the peace and quiet and normal routine. I missed my broms and reading the forum. We both missed our kids (Rebel and Molly) ... they went crazy when we picked them up from the kennels this morning and they are certainly pleased to be home. Missed seeing the other kids and grandkids too.

So, back to reality ... lots of washing and yard work to catch up on as well as lots of reading. No photos tonight, sorry.

Bye for now, Shirley


This message was edited Mar 29, 2014 6:58 AM

Hi everyone – Well at least the two of you and it's good to see you back Shirley as it's been a bit awkward trying to keep things going here with very few posts. Wendy's been helping out even though she's away as have Trish, Theresa and Ian who all have their own problems to deal with at present.

Anyway the weekend's here again and hopefully you are all getting finer weather than we are down here, as it's still raining as I write. The weather forecaster said last night that over the weekend the rain was going to move up the coast to southern coastal Queensland, so I hope you don't get it too severe.

I had a D-Mail from Colleen and the reason we haven't heard from her is that she's done her back in again and she's unable to do anything and its only now she was able to spend a few minutes on the computer but even that aggravated things and she had to stop. Fortunately she has a sister nearby who has been running the show for her and doing the housework, feeding the boys as well as the chooks and other animals. She says she's been able to get to the chiropractor for a session and he's helped her a lot but still needs more treatments. Anyway she said she'll be back posting again as soon as she can and says g'day to all of you.

Wendy – It seems the “D.G. Gremlin” may have been at your computer and ate your post, what other explanation could there be?

Good to hear you got among the fish and were able to freeze a good supply. Nothing like a nice feed of fresh fish just cooked simply without any buggering about with them.

Good news on the excess seedling front as I have found a temporary home to grow them on for at least another 18 months, so that at least will give me some breathing space and save me from binning them and possibly destroying some good plants. Thanks for the offer of finding them a home at Hervey Bay Wendy, but I won't need to send them north now, and besides the postage would have cost a fortune anyway.

What exactly is a “costas rubra“, is it type of ginger? I've never seen anything resembling that down here so I'm assuming it's a tropical plant, but then you know what happens when we assume don't you. Ha! Ha! So tell me and put me out of my misery.

Shirley - It's great to hear you both had such a terrific holiday down south in the “land of the long white cloud”. I've never been there myself but any friends who have all rave about how beautiful it is. What's more they grow great brom's there as well, especially Vrieseas, Alcantareas, Neoregelias and Billbergias. There's some great new hybrids coming out of New Zealand lately and no doubt there will be many more in the future.

I know you've only been away from home for a couple of weeks, but don't the plants seem to grow quickly when you don't look at them each day? I know when ever we came home from holidays everything seemed to have doubled in size while we were away, (including the grass and the weeds).

Isn't it great to see the reaction of your dogs when you come home again, it's just so obvious how happy they are to see you. It was like this when we came home to our dogs also (except one that is). When the kids were small we had two dogs, one of which was a little Foxie, and when ever we came home, (even after just a long weekend break) the brown dog would jump all over us and race madly around the yard to show how happy he was to see us, but the little Foxie would just give what seemed to be a “dirty Look” and just turn her back and ignore us for some time until we had petted her a bit just like we were apologising for going away and not taking her with us. She did this every time and I'm sure she was so spoilt she just did it to make us feel guilty for leaving her at home.

So as you say, back home, and back to the “grind” of everyday life once again.

The pic's I'll finish with today are firstly a Guz. sanguinea poking its heads out of very over-crowded bit of the garden. Pic.2 shows a few of the hanging plants in part of the yard just after the rain, Pic.3 is a few more of my very overcrowded seedlings, Pic.4 is a few of the seedling starting to colour up and Pic 5 is one I bought as a pup and was supposed to be Neo.”Blue Heeler' but I very much doubt that it's true to name.

All the best, Nev.

Shirley - glad you had such nice weather for your trip.
It has been very up & down here...

Looking forward to seeing your pics & hearing a bit more about the places you visited.

It's funny how people assume NZ will be much colder than Aussie but in summer up north it can be fairly warm.

They can grow brugs & broms out doors up there - lucky beggars ;)

Hi all, Well I won this one this time.5 hrs searching to find why my compoter always selected surveys and adds when I went to DG. No not a DG gremlin butsome adaware that snuck in. It was called Rightsurf and has now been uninstalled from this computer.
Trish that Crypt Ruby came down from Mourilyan near Innisfail last weekend and I got it at the meeting.
NevI have DG in my favourites and use it. I find that when I have to login a purple line comes up taking me straight to Aust and NZ gardening, 1 click on this and then I am onto our normal page.
You mentioned grexes and last weekend we shared some seeds from Mouriylan and because so many people are all growing the same seeds from the same plants we decided on a grex name for each of the 2 lots of seeds. We have Hoh leopoldii-horsti as seed parent with mother natures little helpers to pollinate the pods and we will call this batch Ruby.
The second batch of seeds shared was Hoh Catingae and we call this batch Belle. It was at Belle's house we met last weekend, so it seems appropriate.
I use the 1" plastic venetian blind strips for my name tags and some I need to punch holes in them to tie down. Some I don't bother with holes and I haven't had any stolen by birds as yet.
Now for some pics
Pic 1 Ae J C Superstar
Pic 2 Dyckia Sun Tan Hyb
Pic 3 Neo Pink Spider
Pic 4 Some seedlings
Pic 5 Anamea Scorpio

Hi Theresa and Ian – Well here we are half way through the weekend already. The rain has finally stopped here so maybe the weather forecast is right for a change. I was able to get out around the garden yesterday for the first time for a few days and as usual I found something that wasn't there last time I looked. It's an Aechmea and that's it; that's all that's on the label but the thing is there is an inflorescence starting to emerge from the centre, so something new to look forward to. Judging by the foliage colour it could well be one of the Ae spectabilis seedlings I grew from seed a few years back, however I'll just have to be patient and wait until it flowers to be sure.

I relocated lot of Bill's to another area yesterday and was amazed to see all the new pups popping up all over the place, and it seems that finally I've got the right combination of potting mix and light that agrees with them.

Theresa – Like you say a lot of people assume New Zealand will be much colder than Australia, (including me), and I think it's due to all the pic's of the snow we see on the travel brochures that gives this impression. I know it wasn't until I started visiting some of the brom forums that I found out that some magnificent brom's are bred and grown in New Zealand.

Ian – Thanks for the info about “Rightsurf “ and “adaware”; all I have to do now is find out what “adaware” is as I'm really not up to speed on the names of different computer related things. I assume they are two programmes which have been attached to something you down loaded and have remained within your computer until you've just now managed to kill them.

While we're on computers, is there anyone who knows how to start a new thread for April as it will be the start of the month on Tuesday and as Jean usually does it but is otherwise occupied nursing a sick hubby, we need someone else to do it.

The word “grex” has been discussed quite a few times now on various forums and for some reason the BSI is trying to dissuade people from using it when discussing bromeliads as they seem to think that as a term relating to brom's, it's too vague and leads to confusion.

Personally I think it's quite simple; the dictionary defines “grex” as “(Botany) a group of plants that has arisen from the same hybrid parent group”. So if we cross plant “A” with plant “B”, all resulting seedlings from this crossing are collectively known as a grex which we could call plants “C”.

It seems to me the problem comes when naming individual plants. As an example, under the old system all seedlings grown using seed from the same seed pod were firstly registered with the “grex” name (using the example above) of “C” and then if they were good enough for registration, they were given an individual varietal name to separate them from the rest of the grex.

For instance in the above example the plant would be registered as Neoregelia “C” variety 'Ian'. Once registered as such, this same name couldn't be registered for any other plant. This system worked well for bromeliads and orchids or many years and is still used today in the orchid world. It was the B.S.I. who changed it so that the grex name is no longer used and just the varietal name is registered e.g. Neoregelia 'Ian' .

A good example of this was the Neo. “Aussie Dream” grex where the registrar at the time wouldn't register plants using the grex name along with the varietal name and an example is Neo. Aussie Dream 'Lovely Lady' which is now just called Neo. 'Lovely Lady' (with a foot note saying "See 'Aussie Dream' for listing of many other cultivars").

The fact is that although a lot growers still think the old system was the better of the two and take the attitude of 'If it ain't broke don't fix it”; the bottom line is, that the Bromeliad Society International is in control of all registrations internationally and they make the rules and we have to abide by these rules if we want to register a plant.

I personally think that without complicating anything in the registration process, the use of the grex name still has a place with individual growers as you've just illustrated whereby these growers know exactly what seedlings came from what seed batch simply by looking at the grex name, and besides it's much quicker to write a grex name on a name tag than the whole formula name.

How do you find the white plastic Venetian blind strips handle the UV. rays of the sun? This was one of my concerns (apart from the Bower Birds) as they are thinner than the usual name tag I thought they may become brittle with age.

Looking at your pic's now and Ae. 'J.C. Superstar' is a nice plant with the pink and silvery banding but for anyone who hasn't grown it before, it does need good light to show this colour. Grown in low light it just comes another grey/green “nothing plant”. I really can't comment on the Dyckia as I don't grow them and know nothing about them; too many prickles for me.

Neo. 'Pink Spider' also has lots of prickles but I still grow it as Neo's are my passion. It's a primary hybrid from a crossing of two species Neo. pendula x eleuthropetala and when grown into a large specimen is a spectacular looking plant. (See Pic.1 of a nice example of a larger plant exhibited at our 2013 show)

Your Pic.4 shows seedlings; and a nice healthy looking batch they are and possibly even some champions of the future? Where would we be without these as we continually strive to grow that plant that is better and different than all of the others.

Finally xAnamea 'Scorpio' a bi-generic cross (and for those who aren't familiar with the tern “bi-generic” it simply means using two parents each from a different genera) in this case ananas and aechmea. As it's a “Hummel” hybrid we don't know which ananas and aechmea he used as parents as he rarely listed the parent's names when registering his hybrids. When not in flower it is a pretty ordinary looking plant but it does get nice mauve/blue flowers located down in the centre of the vase. (See Pic.2)

That's all for today and the pic's I've chosen today are none of my plants but a mixture from other growers. Pic.1 Neo. 'Pink Spider' exhibited by a society member at our 2013 brom show, Pic.2 shows the attractive flowers of xAnamea 'Scorpio', Pic.3 is Nidularium 'Litmus' also taken at out 2013 show, Pic.4 is Ae. pineliana unfortunately the bright yellow flowers have finished but the brilliant scarlet bracts remain and Pic.5 is an interesting Tillandsia “ball” also taken at our 2013 show (Sorry I don't know the name).

All the best, Nev.

Hi Nev - it's funny, a complete brom novice like me totally gets the idea of a grex name so why BSI doesn't like it is a mystery.

I tried to use grex in an online scrabble game & was very cross it wouldn't let me have it.
Would have been excellent points.
The game is fun but the allow stupid two letter words that aren't really words & disallow real words - prill was another it didn't allow & most gardeners know what that is.

I had great plans for today but am feeling rubbish so have spent most of my time snoozing on the couch.
Sugar is quite happy to keep me company but I feel bad that I am not up to taking her for a nice long walk.

Take care all
Teresa

Hi all, just another day of sorting and cleaning and preparing for the big move. Now to find the handbrake control and get it off. The finances are tight but I think we can make it work.
I have to redo all my lists as I transferred them all to my External hard drive and it has now decided it is time to retire and has gone off on holidays. Well that will teach me to keep all my eggs in one basket. Well at least most of my plants have been numbered and there is a written copy on pieces of paper, but the plans have been moved, given away or sold or swapped or whatever. This could be fun and as I am moving challenging. It will have to be done at the other end anyway so another practise run will not hurt. I have acquired more plants and not recorded them all so it is not complete anyway.
Nev that Til looks like one of the ionanthas but which one I have no clue
The plastic venetian blind strips seem to be working for me and others around here, I have only been using them for 12 months or so and use a 2b lead pencil for marking them. It is surprising how many people use the common lead pencil on name tags. They are simple, inexpensive and work. Just don't rub them while wet. I have even written on wet tags and the names stay.
Dyckias are sun lovers and are good border plants if you want to keep getting spiked. There are some stunning colours and shapes and are best to be seen and not handled..
Thinking of prefix names, which are similar to grex names like Totara that Peter Coyle uses or Kolan which Russel Holzeimer used will these be next to be disallowed.I would hope not.
Teresa I think the problem with the grex manes is that it is too simple, anyone can understand it. It does not fit in with the technology of today. But then there could be the thinking that Bromelaid growers are different to Orchid growers and must have different rules. It is just political bs to me.Just maybe your body is telling you to slow down for a while. I have just come out of this type of feeling .
A grex mate of J C Superstar is called Gold Nugget.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Vr Red Chestnut
Pic 2 Varigated ginger
Pic 3 Under the citrus trees
Pic 4 Hoh leopoldi-horstii pup
Pic 5 Giant Panda snail. A native of tropical rain forrest.

Hi everyone – Nothing much to report today except to say I was dragged off to another four year old's birthday party yesterday with my grandson. Spent most of the morning reminiscing with family members and friends and when I got home I finally finished mulching the front garden, so at east I finished another job and the day wasn't entirely unproductive.

Theresa – Yes understanding the meaning of the word grex isn't exactly rocket science and even I can understand the meaning of it too. It has me puzzled why the BSI wants to do away with it being used in conjunction with bromeliads, maybe it's a case of they just want to be different to the Royal Horticultural Society who was using it for orchids and bromeliads before the BCR even existed and they now just want to do their “own thing”. I'm still in favour of the old system (I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks) and I'll keep banging my drum in its favour as I can't see any great advantage in having changed to the new system; however, “them's the rules” and if we want to register a plant now we have to play by those rules and that's the end of it.

Ian – I've found it's never a good idea to rely on technology completely; I always keep a paper copy, (I often misplace it) but I always keep one.

You say you have acquired more plants and not recorded them, well just let me say I'm always doing that and that's the reason I keep finding plants that I don't ever remember getting.

As for the Till. name ionantha, that does sound familiar, but because I don't grow Tillandsias I tend not to try and remember their names as there's only so much space in my brain and that's reserved for the names of the plants I do grow. Ha! Ha!

It seems like items used for writing on name tags has gone the full circle, it all started with pencils and went through a myriad of different types of permanent marking pens and now we're back to pencils again. I still use a fine OHP transparency marker not because I find them any better than pencils, but because I always seem to break the lead in pencils at the most inappropriate time and have to go looking for something to sharpen them with. It's been proved that names written with pencils don't fade as quickly as ones written with some markers and that's probably due to the fact that the graphite in pencils tolerates the sun's UV rays better.

I never thought about using Dyckias as a border plant, but they would certainly help keep stray dogs and cats off the garden, so it's certainly something worth thinking about.

As for the prefix names, well they are just a grex name applied in a different manner to get around the change in the system. There have been a few growers who have named groups of hybrids as a “Series” of plants (note the use of the word series and not “grex”) There was Jack Koning's Neo. “Wild “series and his Vriesea 'Aussie Beauty', 'Beaches', 'Bushranger', 'Candy Shop', 'Dream Time', 'Jack's Angel' and quite a few other series; Andrew Maloy did it with his famous Vriesea 'Kiwi' series, Peter Coyle with his 'Tasman' series and Lisa Vinzant with her “Blue Berry” series. There are many more, these are just some of the ones I remember.

What has always puzzled me was why Bob Larnach wasn't able to register the Neo. 'Aussie Dream' series as such, and had to just register each individual C.V. name. What's the different between e.g. Jack's “Aussie Beauty” series which was registered and Bob's “Aussie Dream” series which was disallowed? As you suggest is it just political? I know it's bloody unfair, if you make rules you must apply them the same way to everyone..........end of story!

That's interesting you mention that a grex mate of J C Superstar is called Gold Nugget. I never knew this and have never seen the plant, do you have it and if so how about a picture? All the BCR tells us apart from a written description is that it that it's a cross between the two Aechmea species of ramosa and chantinii and was made by Howard Yamamoto in 1980.

Now to your pic's, that's a nice looking 'Red Chestnut' in your first picture, as is the variegated ginger in the second one. I didn't know ginger came with variegations so I've learned my new thing for today already. What about the plants under the citrus tree, have you factored these into the list of plants you're taking with you or have you forgotten as it's easy done. I love the colours of your Hoh. Leopoldi-horstii; if that's just a pup, it must grow into a pretty decent sized plant; just how big does it get?

Finally the picture of the Giant Panda Snail; maybe there a new business venture here for you, breeding these for the restaurant trade. They're pretty big and it wouldn't take too many of them to make a dozen would it?

Finally as usual, a big “Get Well Soon” to anyone one the sick list and also an invitation to any of the folks that just read these posts but don't post themselves. Come on in and say hello and be an active part of the group; we need a few more members.

That's it for today and Pic.1 is Neo. 'Apricot Nectar' on the potting bench waiting for some new mix, Pic.2 is a close-up of Nid.'Leprosa' showing the buds just ready to “pop”. Pic.3 is Guz. wittmackii, and although the flowers have died the bracts are still holding their colour after three months. (I cut off the spike the next day as I found three new pups coming up and I wanted the plant to put its energy into the pups rather than a flower spike beginning to wane) Pic.4 is a “ball” of Vr. flammea previously grown in low light and now moved to its new location just beneath the shade cloth which will hopefully promote more flowers next season. Finally Pic.5 Ae nudicaulis variety 'aequalis' showing the striking contrast between the yellow flowers and the brilliant scarlet bracts.

All the best, Nev.

well grex names seem to be a can of worms...

interesting that some breeders use a prefix name to identify their plants.

Dalfyre is my kennel name - the litter of pups I bred all had that as the prefix to their pedigree names.
Some breeders like to be really specific & start the first litter with the prefix & then all 'A' names then each subsequent litter is in alphabetical order.
I know of a few breeders who have gone through the alphabet more than once.

I thought about it but wound up just making up names that I liked or were suggested by the puppy buyers.
Dalfyre Hot Toddy (Toddy)
Dalfyre Dickson's Abbey (Abby)
Dalfyre Sno Leopard (Fletcher)
Dalfyre Tama Takaro (Tama)
Dalfyre Copper Beech (Copper)
Dalfyre Friendly Ghost (Caspar)
I lost one pup at birth, she would have been mine & named Dalfyre Burning Bright (Taiga)
as in Tiger, Tiger burning bright
in the forest of the night...

Hi all, another day and nothing done after paid work. That is not going to last long either and that is one of the reasons I am planning to move. The money tree has been shaken and there is no fruit left to fall.I think this is a world wide happening though.
Nev the plants under the citrus trees are my white varigates and will not be staying here. They stand out amongst the other colours but with too much light they sometimes go reddish, so I keep them in the shade. The down side to this is that they can get a bit leggy.
Hoh leopoldi-horstii will grow to about 18" to 2'' high and about 6" thick through the base. It takes full sun here and goes almost black, if shade grown it stays greenish.
The giant Panda snail if bred for restaurant would still take 12 to the dozen but would fill a big plate.
I do not have Gold Nugget but say it on fb some time back with the comments that it was a grex mate of J C Superstar. Gold Nugget is not as clearly marked and maybe that is why some JCS don't live up to expectation. It is almost there but not quite. Just a consideration.
I love that Apricot Nectar.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Portea petropoliana vae extensa
Pic 2 Bil Fantail jc80562
Pic 3 Bil Fantasia
Pic 4 Nid longiforium (innocentii) old name
pic 5 Some space where I have cleaned.

Hi all,

Still in catch up mode but making some progress. Have done lots of washing, mowing, pup potting and generally trying to get everything up to date.

Still haven’t found the time to read the posts of the last couple of weeks and still haven’t downloaded the cruise photos or taken new ones since our return.

Had an appointment today and another tomorrow then shopping on Wednesday. Hoping to get time to buy some new pots and potting mix tomorrow. Fortunately, no need to spend time watering as we have had quite a bit of rain and we are still getting showers.

I had my flu shot before we left but still managed to pick up a virus of some sort and have been a bit crook for the last week but I am over the worst of it now.

Anyway, I might just dig up some old photos of a few of my favourites and attach them.

1 – neo Gold Medal, 2 – neo Grace Darling x Hearts Music, 3 – neo Hula Girl, 4 – neo Peggy Bailey, 5 – neo Gee Whiz Rubra

Bye for now, Shirley

dalfry- what breed? ive just got myself a great dane pup to show.

Hi everyone – Happy April Fool's Day!

Theresa – Back in the 1990's, Keith Golinski started registering Alan Freeman's hybrids; and if you look at the BCR it seems he named them all alphabetically also. There was such an uproar on the Bromeliad Garden Web Forums about him tying up the BCR for so long and complaints that no one else could register their plants that he stopped when he finished the “H's” and had at that stage registered 500 plants and didn't register any more.

Ian – What you say is quite right, money seems to be scarce everywhere as do jobs. I guess this is the price we pay for technology which eliminates a lot of the jobs. I remember the first time we went to Bali I commented to my son about the gardeners at the resort cutting the grass with hand shears and not lawn mowers and asked don't they have lawn mowers in Bali? His answer was that if they used lawn mowers 20 of those blokes would be out of work, so technology does have its down side as well. Some wise old man once said, “For every plus there is a corresponding minus” and we can't disagree with that when we think about things, can we?

It's a pity you have to leave the plants under the citrus trees as they do make a nice contrast; can't you find an equally shady spot where you are going?

It seems that Hoh leopoldi-horstii is going to grow into one very tough plant, you'll probably need a chainsaw to divide it when the time comes. Can you post another pic. when it's mature please?

Interestingly, there was someone on Face Book trying to ID an Aechmea which looked vaguely like 'J. C. Superstar' only it lacked the 'J. C. Superstar' pinkish colour even though it appeared to be growing in good light. Is it possible this was that 'Gold Nugget' you speak of?

Neo. 'Apricot Nectar' is a plant well worth getting for your collection as I find it a fascinating plant which has many colour changes as it moves from pup toward maturity. Because of this, I sometimes think a better choice of name for it would have been Neo. 'Apricot Chameleon' .

Nid longiforium was originally named Nid. innocentii var. wittmackianum and as later re-named Nid.longiflorum. I've now been told the name has been changed again to just Nid innocentii, have you heard anything about this and have you seen it documented anywhere? The plant you show in your pic doesn't look like any of the above named plants as the green colour doesn't look right; your plant looks more of an unusual grey/green colour whereas every plant of this I've ever seen is more of a vegetable green colour, even when grown in deep shade. Quite apart from the leaf colour, the flower looks different also (See my Pic.1) When you settle into your new home would you be interested in swapping a pup of your plant for a pup of mine?

Shirley – Good to see you back posting again. Isn't it amazing, when we go away for a couple of weeks, on our return it always seems to be a month before we catch up with where we were before we left?

They may be old photo's you've posted but they're a great collection of colour. I was a bit surprised to see a little bit of similarity in the markings of 'Hula Girl' with those of Neo. 'Painted Lady' and went to the BCR to see if similar parents had been involved but was surprised to see it wasn't even registered. There's a Crypt.'Hula Girl' and a Neo.'Exotica Hula Girl’ but no Neo.'Hula Girl'.

I was also surprised to see that the beautiful Neo.'Peggy Bailey' in your picture doesn't seem to match the description of the Neo.'Peggy Bailey' on the BCR which was registered back in 1982. Unfortunately there isn't a picture, but the BCR describes it as: “Very large flattened rosette of 4" wide leaves with uniform rounded tips - leaf color is dark reddish w/minimal markings and mottled somewhat in canistrum fashion - plant grows to 36" diameter”. Without knowing the sizes of your plant I still don't think it's the same plant as there's no mention of its main feature which in my opinion is the pink leaf margins.

Also the Neo.'Gee Whiz Rubra' which has been travelling around Queensland for some years now and which is a plant I even have; there is no mention of this name on the BCR either so maybe the “Rubra” is just something someone has added to a darker than usual clone of 'Gee Whiz' and it has become part of the name.

Nor can I understand why the beautiful Neo.'Grace Darling' x 'Hearts Music' hasn't been registered. It's certainly worthy of its own name instead of just being left in limbo with the formula name.

All of your plants pictured are beautiful plants which I'd have in my collection any day, but when I start looking for the names on the register and find some aren't registered, I have to ask why would someone go to the trouble of giving a beautiful plant a name and not follow through and make it official with a registration? It's not like it's a difficult process, it can be done “on line”, takes about five minutes and is free. Maybe I should just accept the name without question, but then it's my nature to question as I'm interested in seeing who the parents of these plants were.

Well that's my whinge for today and I'll finish with a few pic's of some of my Nidulariums for a change. Pic.1 is my Nid. Innocentii, Pic.2 is Nid.'Nana'., Pic.3 is Nid.'Madonna', Pic.4 is Nid.'Litmus' and Pic.5 is Nid. fulgens 'Orange Bract' (Spotted form)

All the best, Nev.

Dalmatians are my chosen breed - love the spots.

Love the spotted broms too :)

hi everyone. I typed up a nice blurb last night and when I went to attach a pic the computer froze and would not do anything. it kept giving me the option to recover the webpage but nothing would happen. I couldn't close anything, open anything, nothing at all. So in frustration I shutdown. post gone.
Nev, Shirley's neo peggy bailey came from me. there has been much discussion on fb regarding this. Peter Tristram made comments regarding his registration of the plant but he couldn't find his original photo. I think my original plant came from Olive Trevor with this name. it has been suggested that it is just jaws but it is different in my opinion. when jaws pups come out they are green and white. when PB pups come out they are already with pink margins every time. I believe they are different plants but maybe the name is wrong. I know after the fb discussion it was agreed to disagree and leave things as they were.

just remembered something in last nights post. We use venetian blind tags, named and poked right down the side of the pot till they can't be seen. that way if the main tag fades we have a backup to find the name and redo it. also we've had some tags swapped around and if we think a name tag is wrong we can always find the deep one and check if the tag is correct or not. sometimes we've had tags swapped and they are not even side by side so it appears to be deliberate. don't know what people achieve by doing this.

Ian I also love the bigenerics like xanamea scorpio. We have it growing in full sun and it gets a lovely red colouring to it. the infloresence is then a bonus with that little pineapple sitting on top. One of my favourite bigenerics is neomea munchkin. Love that little one. Now do it try to add a pic and risk freezing again? no it froze again. lucky I did a copy before it tried so all is good. I'm posting now.

Wendy

nice dalfyre- of cause i could have worked that out now couldnt i. hehe!

Hi Teresa and Wendy – I see we are still a bit short of members posting, maybe they've gone into an early winter hibernation.

I spent all day yesterday in one of my shade houses dead-leafing, inspecting and tidying up plants. Out of the whole shade house I found only one that had rotted (and I think this was due to the fact it had been knocked off the bench and the central growth had been broken). The reason for the inspection was due to all of the rain we've had and I thought it would be wise to check for rot as I'm using Coir chunks in my mix and they do hold water well, however everything smells OK at this stage.

Breeindy – Good looking Dalmatian and the handler ain't 'alf bad either!

The bloke next door to us a few years back had a Dalmatian and I found her a lovely friendly animal and if I was in the front yard, she would always come and say gooday to me each day when he was bringing her back from her walk, Unfortunately he moved to Victoria so I don't see her any more.

Wendy – See, that'll teach you to type your post on MS word first and then cut and paste, I've been doing it for “yonks” now and ever since I started it DG has never eaten another post.

When I saw the pic of Neo.'Peggy Bailey', I immediately recognised it and thought it was Neo 'Yin' before I saw the name the name 'Peggy Bailey'.(See Pic. on the BCR)

You say that “Pedro” says he registered it but his name isn't recorded as being the person who registered it; D. Fairchild (1982) is the only name recorded and he would have been the breeder. Further more, if Pedro had a picture of it why wasn't that put with the registration as well? Quite a few ?????? hanging over this name isn't there.

1996-98 saw quite a few Skotak hybrids from the crossing of Neo. carolinae x carcharodon registered; there were 'Yang', 'Yin', 'Wobbygong', 'Gummy', 'Grey Nurse', 'Jaws' and 'Jaws Too'.
I know Pedro registered 'Jaws Too' back in 1998 and that's recorded on the BCR - Maybe Pedro's like me and got the CRAFT disease and is getting the 'Peggy Bailey' and 'Jaws Too' confused with each other.

You say your original plant cam from Olive Trevor, if you're talking to her sometime maybe she could explain more about its history.

Ah the dilemma of name tags; why is that people always have to pull them out of the pot? To read them you say, but what of the “T” shaped tags that can clearly be read without taking them out of the pot? They still pull these out as well and like any other tag, more often than not put them back in the wrong pot. It's just something people have always done even back when I grew orchids and that's why an old friend of mine always writes two name tags just like you do, but he puts his tag "name side down" in the bottom of the pot so that if he finds a plant with no name, he just inverts the pot, gives it a tap and there's the name.

I too am getting interested in bi-generics,ever since I planted some seed from a xNiduregelia 'Something Special' which had been pollinated by someone or something unknown. Most of the seedlings were like very average Neo's but about a dozen were like the seed parent with improved colours. When I was asked to give a short talk to our society about Bi-Generics I had to do a bit of research and it was then I realised what we are now seeing with Bi-generics is just the very the tip of the iceberg so to speak and there's a whole new world of interesting hybrids waiting to be made.

Before I go; this morning I had an SOS from a lady wanting the recipe for the Len Trotman Mosquito and Snail Deterrent and thought someone on here may like it as well so here it is as printed in the Illawarra Bromeliad Society bi-monthly News Letter.

LEN TROTMAN’S MOZZI AND SNAIL DETERRENT

Step 1. - 500 ml Sunlight or Zip liquid dish washing detergent
200 ml Household Cloudy Ammonia
100 ml Citronella or Pine-O-Clean disinfectant
Mix the above ingredients in 5 L cold water

Step 2. - Mix 30-60 ml (2-4 Tablespoons full) of the above mix in 1 L water
(To make 6 L, mix 180-360 ml in 6 L water)
Can be used weekly and can also be mixed with liquid fertiliser

NB: This recipe will also prevent ‘Quilling’ of bromeliads, and while it will cause foaming in the centre of the plant it can be left in without any harmful effects.

Sorry no pic's today

All the best, Nev.

Hello everyone.
I am taking some time to read and post while hubby is sleeping. He sleeps a lot lately and I suppose if the body wants to sleep, let it.
We are off to Geelong next week for the final tests before the big op. Hopefully the weather will be mild like today and not hot and windy like yesterday.
we did get a nice bit of rain overnight too.
The plants are all loving it..
I had to go down and rescue a brom that was out of its pot and rather squished.
It was my pretty neo Cane Fire. It will recover and hopefully have a few pups.
We had a wallaby visit 2 days ago and he somehow got into the brom area but only damaged the one plant. They are so good at avoiding the plants if they come in. Seeing where the little fellow was, I am very surprised no more broms were even touched.
Usually any wallabys will find their way out, but I frightened this one by appearing suddenly .

I have had a quick read of the posts but wont reply to all as I would be here for ages.
Lovely to get in and see you all. I do sometimes pop in for a very quick peek but havent had time to do a long post .

I also popped into eBay to admire all the fantastic broms on there.
I bought a pretty neo Silver Cloud and a very lovely bill from anniesam called Annies Joy.

I even took a few pics while the sun was out so will add them here before I go an dget hubby a cuppa.

Hope all are well and enjoying all the broms.

pic 1 ... a pretty vriesea Red Dragon

pic 2...aech orlandiana ( a light form in full sun )

pic 3... aech orlandiana ( very dark form in semi shade)

pic 4 ... a pup from the darker orlandiana out in more light

pic 5...my neo Olens Vulcan finally getting some color after living in a dark corner for a few years.

Hope to pop back in again soon.
Take care
Jean.

Hi everyone. Hope you are all okay. I'm slowly getting there. Off to the chiro again tomorrow and then hopefully I will be able to get around a bit better. I haven't read any of the threads but will get there. I noticed that we are still in March but I suppose that doesn't matter too much as I've missed half of it anyway. I haven't done any brom work and even the plants that Nev sent were potted up by my sister who came to look after us for nearly a fortnight. I drove the car for the first time today to go and get some lucerne and chook food but then had to leave it in the boot until Cameren got home from school. Branden is on his school camp til Friday. They are supposed to be going surfing but it has turned quite cold again. I suppose kids don't feel it like we do. I've had a heap of Brugmansias flower including one US one and wasn't able to see them when they first came out. I sent Cameren around with the camera to take pics and he did a really great job. Will try to get back in tomorrow after the chiro and let you all know how things are going. Take care everyone. Colleen